Technology | Media | Telecommunications

Wednesday, May 05, 2010

Mobile broadband offerings are receiving more attention, when compared to wireleine or fixed broadband services. Yet fixed broadband subscriber adoption is still growing robustly around the world.

Fixed broadband subscribers totaled 430.7 million in 2009 globally, according to the latest market study by ABI Research. That growth represents approximately a 13 percent increase over 2008.

"Fixed broadband is an attractive platform for the delivery of IPTV, gaming services with low latency, rapid access to web content, and secure access to non-building access points," says Jake Saunders, VP for forecasting. "Technologies such as fiber-to-the-home, VDSL and GPON are helping to keep fixed broadband relevant to end-users -- both in the home and office."

South Korea and Japan remain the global market leaders with the most fiber-based super high-speed broadband penetration. In Japan approximately 55 percent of broadband subscribers are using fiber broadband. In Korea, fiber broadband customers represent 49 percent of overall broadband users.

The growing customer demand for symmetrical Internet access speed will continue to drive more fiber broadband adoption in future. ABI Research forecasts that fiber broadband subscribers will total almost 134 million by 2015.

According to ABI analyst Khin Sandi Lynn, "We expect broadband penetration in North America to be accelerated by federal government initiatives which aim to roll out broadband access in rural areas of the U.S."

ABI estimates that the number of worldwide fixed broadband subscribers will rise to 548 million in 2015, and that equates to a 2010-2015 CAGR of 3 percent.